The amount of revenue a business generates is dependent upon the customers the business attracts and how well the business serves the needs of the customers. To better identify the customers and their needs, it is often advantageous for a business to gather demographic information regarding its customers, including geographical and socioeconomic information. By gathering this information, a business is better able to customize its business for its customer base, thereby increasing revenues and decreasing expenses by determining the types of products or services to offer, the market for the products or services, the types of advertising that may be effective, the value of specific types of advertising, and the like.
One attempt to collect customer data has been utilized by businesses that advertise in the advertisement section of the phone book, commonly referred to as the Yellow Pages. In order to help publishers of the Yellow Pages prove the value of advertising in its Yellow Pages and to gather customer data, publishers may install equipment that tracks the response generated due to the advertisement in the Yellow Pages. To do this, the publishers typically assign a “virtual” telephone number to the business. When the virtual telephone number is called, the telephone call is routed to the actual telephone number of the business. In this manner, the publisher may collect caller information when customers call the virtual telephone number. The service enables publishers and businesses (i.e., advertisers) to receive detailed call traffic analysis including date and time of call, call duration, ring duration, source of call (residential or business), disposition of call (answered, busy, no answer), and the name and address of the caller. This information then allows businesses to obtain other socioeconomic data.
This ability, however, is not available or convenient for all businesses or aspects of a business. For example, as described above, the publisher typically assigns a “virtual” telephone number to the business. Many businesses have used and advertised existing telephone numbers for years and may not want to change telephone numbers. Other businesses may not want or need to advertise in the Yellow Pages, but would nonetheless like to obtain, and profit from, the information that may be gathered by such a system that collects information regarding callers. In another example, a business may want to collect information regarding specific aspects of a business, such as a customer service number, a sporting-goods department, or the like. In these cases, a company may not need to advertise the number, but would want to collect caller information to better serve its customers.
Thus, there is a need for a method and an apparatus that allows a business to collect customer information that may be used, for example, to gather marketing and advertising information, customer demographics, and the like.